Water catchment | Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

High on a creek full of water

14 08 2024

Hold onto your paddles, folks, have I got some rainwater for you. 🙂

Brought to you courtesy of Mother Nature –> Southwest Colorado –> Disappointment Valley –> Spring Creek Basin:

A full water-catchment trough is always a good sign. Fortunately, though low (in the tank, uphill behind me), we’ve had enough rain lately to keep this trough full – and there have been a fair number of horses drinking here with the amazing grass around (don’t let the pic fool you; the galleta, in particular, is bonkers this year, along with the alkali sacaton). I may have explained this in the past, but it bears repeating: The triangular sheet of metal over the trough is an evaporation cover, designed to help slow evaporation of precious water in our (usually) dry climate. The shape of the cover is triangular so the horses have plenty of room to drink at the sides of the round trough.

The Flat Top pond looks small in this wide-angle view looking eastish across Spring Creek Basin, but although it has gotten pretty shallow in recent years, it’s a pretty good size.

Good thing I scouted the V-arroyo before I tried to cross it. Those are my tentative footprints in the pillowy, shoe-grabbing – and tire-stopping – mud in the center bottom of the pic. You might not think it’s too bad, but there’s a lot of water in/under that surface mud still, and it is NOT friendly to tires or shoes until it has a chance to seep deeper into the soil and dry out from the bottom up. Along the left side of the pic is the arroyo – we’re looking upstream. The bottom of the arroyo, where I’m standing on relatively firm ground, isn’t very wide (hence my name of the “V”-arroyo), and the road rises to my left – up a little water-carved bank that’s nothing like the wall still in place on the other side of the first Spring Creek crossing.

Holy Spring, err, RIVER! I know it’s hard to tell, but this is the first crossing of the usually-dry arroyo that is Spring Creek (when it’s not masquerading as a rainwater-swollen river). Yes, the other side is a road. 🙂 Well, it’s mostly a two-tiered wall; the right side of it is where I dug a channel in the wall the last time the creek ran (back in June) so I could get my ATV across and up and over. It has been widened by crazy people in a truck (I don’t know who … I don’t know anyone that silly/stupid/nutso), but it’s greatly eroded again and is going to need some custom shovel work. (And lowering of the water level. :)) The width here is probably about 25 yards? (Good darting distance.) And this water level is at least 4-5 feet below where it was at its highest/widest mark, behind me, so it’s already running with less volume than at its peak. (WoW!)

I took a lot of pix from here, and I wish I knew how to embed video; I’m still on a super-high from seeing all that water. Bear with me as I show you some upstream and downstream and high-vantage pix. (If you don’t think water in the desert is A BIG DEAL, you don’t live in a desert.)

Looking downstream. Note the two-tiered wall across the creek where the road is (should be). Most of the rocks at left are from previous flooding. But I will tell you, that kind of water can move BIG rocks. I have seen it, and I have moved big (enough) rocks out of the way of crossing in a vehicle or ATV. This is why the powers that be warn people against crossing flooded roads; that water literally grooves arroyos into our salt-desert landscape (milennia ago, this was under a giant ocean!).

Arroyo as defined by Merriam Webster: plural arroyos. 1. : a waterway (as a creek) in a dry region. 2. : an often dry gully or channel carved by water.). … Arroyos are a desert’s proof of water movement – that far bank/wall is much taller than I am. The wall where the road used to be is proof that they’re always changing – with more water.

Looking upstream. Note the water at far right; it was still finding ways to trickle along downstream.

A bit wider view from back up the road a bit. I mean … ?! 🙂 I knew, before ever I got there, that I wouldn’t be able to cross, but I did NOT know how river-esque Spring Creek would be. I love, love, love this place.

Similar view, but this shows the bend in the creek at right. … Try to follow me upstream: See McKenna Peak (the pyramid-shaped pointy peak)? Way back there is the source/start of Spring Creek, which – as you all know, being loyal, wonderful readers of this blog – drains Spring Creek BASIN (along with all its multitude of widely (and narrowly) and wildly variable tributary arroyos). As you may or may not know, the creek doesn’t roll in a straight line from there to here (or beyond/behind/downstream of me). So that bend goes around to the left – upstream of the southernmost *major* drainage/arroyo in the basin – and past another creek/arroyo crossing (below the dugout, if you’ve visited). It comes from the eastish side of the basin – with the northernmost *major* drainage/arroyo entering from the northish to also run back to (really from) the northeast. Are you still with me? There are three *major* drainages in Spring Creek Basin with Spring Creek being the lowest, middle drainage – named as the very-most-major drainage and namesake of the basin it drains.

Water is important here. Knowing how it flows is part of the importance. Back in the very-long-ago day, some other silly people – who apparently didn’t know about arroyos and the highly-erodable quality of the salt-desert soil – tried to dam Spring Creek just below the confluence of the third major arroyo. Thinking they would create a reservoir out of which to irrigate land for farming (what WERE they thinking?), they built a dam and dredged miles of irrigation ditch; the remains of both can still be seen. As the story goes, the first major rain of the (likely monsoon?) season brought water rolling like a river down every tiny arroyo, down to and through the big drainages, blasted a hole in the dam that likely had cost boatloads of blood and sweat and resulted in tears (!) … and they went away *disappointed* (har har). … Mother Nature always wins, folks.

Well, I knew better than to attempt the crossing of Spring Creek Basin’s *river* (without more rain … which we’re getting again as I type … the creek would likely be done flowing within 24 hours … though the water will last in pockets and seeps for a good long while), so despite the big group of a couple of bands of mustangs not far away, I headed out, already on a great big, marvelous high.

What you’re looking at in the pic above is our crazy-good grass, which amazes me because of the little – but always valuable – rain we’ve gotten this summer (this year, really; it’s been pretty darn dry since *last* year). The galleta grass is particularly bonkers this year, along with the sand dropseed and/or alkali sacaton (very similar in appearance). This is from right inside the basin’s main/western boundary entrance looking eastish.

From here, my next destination was the south rim of Spring Creek canyon, through which water runs out of Spring Creek Basin, out across lower Disappointment Valley and into Disappointment Creek, which delivers water – along with a “healthy” (aka large) dose of salt and sediment (apologies) – to the grand and spectacular Dolores River.

Spring Creek, draining Spring Creek Basin. 🙂 Around the near (left) bend, before the far bend, there’s a fence across the wide-open low ground and a water gap across the creek; that’s the basin’s western boundary. Way yonder, on the horizon, on the far side of the farthest rimrock and even beyond that blue-grey tide of rain, is the south shoulder of eastern Utah’s La Sal Mountains.

Not even my phone’s widest angle is wide enough to take in all the gorgeousity of Spring Creek through its canyon, so here’s another bit of view that takes in more of the upstream canyon area. Spring Creek Basin stretches north (straight ahead of me) and east (to my right) and south (behind me) from this perspective on the canyon’s south rim.

Those layers. The canyon is neither super deep nor particularly long. But it is so gorgeous.

In just the short time I walked out and spent along the rim, the storm to the west was already passing.

Looking upstream across the heart of Spring Creek Basin, where another storm loomed on the northeastern/eastern/southeastern horizon.

And because this is a blog about the wild horses of Spring Creek Basin, there IS a mustang out there, though I’m not sure he’s visible. As far as I know, the young mister is the only one to have crossed the creek (within view, anyway). 🙂

Grow, grass, grow!

Better late than never (this was the last day of specific rain in the forecast). I think we can be said to have gotten some monsoon rains this summer. Despite all the worry leading to this day (yesterday), soooo amazingly grateful. 🙂

* Thanks to Charley Pride for the inspiration behind this post’s title – “(High on a) Mountain of Love.”

Comments : 14 Comments »

Categories : Brumley Point, Colorado, Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, Ponds, Rain, Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon, Temple Butte, Water, Water catchment

Critter ladder in use

29 07 2024

I *think* that’s a male brown-headed cowbird in the center, possibly flanked by females or juveniles. Please DO correct me if you know the correct ID. Birds – especially LBJs – aren’t even on my list of known-about critters.

Speaking of critters, they’re on the “critter ladder” in the trough at the main/original water catchment in Spring Creek Basin, built 20-plus years ago. The “ladder” is a bit of metal mesh that allows birds, ground squirrels – critters – to get to the water to drink without drowning. I was super tickled to see them using it with horses (that’s Tenaz in the background) napping around it after an evening mosey to the water cooler, err, trough. (All of the troughs at all four water catchments in the basin have some form of critter ladder.)

Fun bonus pic of the male actually standing on the rim of the trough as photographed through the legs of a napping mustang. 🙂

Everything in the wild needs water. Mother Nature could be a little (!) more helpful in the delivery of said water, but we do our best to ensure that it gets where it needs to go.

Comments : 10 Comments »

Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water, Water catchment, Wild birds

Gathered at the cooler water

11 08 2023

A lot of the horses, I see a lot of the time when I visit Spring Creek Basin. Some of the horses, I see some of the time, and a couple of bands, I see rarely. This year, with the new catchments, and horses having found both and using/drinking at both, I do now see a lot of the horses a lot of the time!

But until recently, a couple-few of the bands had become a little elusive, even bands that I had otherwise seen literally every single time I went out. It occurred to me that those bands had found and were using the catchment in the northwest valley – last year’s new catchment – but I rarely drive into that part of the basin (the road is pretty rough), and every time I glassed that area, I saw neither hide nor hair of them.

That changed recently.

I decided to just drive back there and have a look around. At the least, thought I, I’d see hoofprints around the trough.

Oh, ho! From a distance, with the binoculars, I finally saw them up in the northwest valley … and when I arrived, sure enough, there were the “elusive” ones, all there to greet me.

When they decided it was drink time (it was, in fact, well after 5 o’clock there …!), I followed along as they all moseyed to the trough, then waited with them while one band drank, then another … and another … followed by the low-pony bachelors.

These two little sweethearts are youngsters, and though they initially got chased away when, with all the innocence of youth, they preceded their band and tried to drink while another band was at the trough, they did very soon after that get their fill of the lovely clear, clean water.

And mama Winona, too.

I took pix with my phone and texted Mike (Jensen, our herd manager) and told him (again) how sincerely grateful I am to him for having the foresight to take these water catchments from vision to reality. He replied with a characteristically low-key thumbs-up emoji. 🙂

These water catchments (we have four now in the basin, with storage capacity of 50,500 gallons) are game-changers for us. They are the absolute difference between our horses sipping from muddy seeps (only one pond still has water currently) and being able to actually slake their thirst during 90-plus-degree days with humidity in the single digits.

Grateful????? Multiply that by a gajillion, and that’s still not enough. Super, super grateful. 🙂

In case you missed the posts about our water-catchment-building projects the last two years, check out these posts (wow, I didn’t realize I’d done so many until I listed them here (please excuse the randomness of changing styles?!)) … but the *WORK* was, has been and continues to be amazing, for which we are eternally grateful!):

Wildcat valley, 2021

Teamwork

Water catchment: phase 1, day 1

Water catchment: phase 1, day 2

Water catchment: phase 1, day 3

Water catchment: phase 1, day 4

Water catchment: phase 2, day 1

Water catchment: phase 2, day 2

Water catchment: phase 3 (teaser)

Water catchment: phase 3

Water catchment: phase 4

Water catchment: phase 4.5

Water catchment: phase 4.75

Water catchment: phase 4.9

A welcome gift

Northwest valley, 2022:

Wind and smoke and dust and … road work

Water catchment 2: Phase 1, day 2

Water catchment 2: Phase 1, day 3

Water catchment 2: Phase 1, day 4

Water catchment 2 – phase 2, day 1

Water catchment 2 – phase 2, day 2

Water catchment 2 – phase 2, day 2 (more)

Water catchment 2 – phase 2, day 3

Water catchment 2 – phase 2, day 4

Water catchment 2 – phase 2, day 5

Comments : 8 Comments »

Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water catchment

Drinking fresh

25 07 2023

Even from a distance, it was great to see absolute evidence of horses drinking at the water catchment in wildcat valley. There are a few bands in the area, and there are hoofprints at the trough, but this is only the second time I’ve actually seen horses there. It makes me super happy to know they can drink the cool, fresh water collected from rain and snow.

Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water catchment

Banked

19 07 2023

At least a few bands – a couple more than the last I observed – have found the new (2021) water catchment in wildcat valley in Spring Creek Basin. The cool, clear water in the trough must seem like sweet nectar after the muddy and/or smelly and/or tiny sips of water they’d been getting in various locations previously.

The high temp hit at least 101 degrees recently in Disappointment Valley. It reminds me of the hot days I spent with the BLM guys building this catchment … but even more, I’m so grateful Mike Jensen had the foresight TO build it (and the others). There’s a lot of water in those tanks; we could use an infusion of any amount of rain to keep them filled.

Comments : 8 Comments »

Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water catchment

12 from 2022

31 12 2022

Looking back helps us look forward (*when* it helps? sometimes I think looking forward is the only way to go … though I’m not very good at this myself). I think this is the third year of the (admittedly borrowed, in my case) tradition of posting 12 pix at the end of the year that represent each of the previous months. It has been a good year in Spring Creek Basin. After another less-than-positive winter and a dry spring, we had a second-in-a-row summer monsoon season and a relatively rainy early fall. Then things got dry again before we finally started to get snow a couple of weeks before Christmas.

Our excellent BLM partners – Mike Jensen, Garth Nelson and Daniel Chavez – put their enviable skills to work and built a second water catchment in the basin, starting in early summer and finishing in the fall. It’s another (our fourth) such project to catch and store liquid gold and bank it against continuing drought conditions; with the newest catchment, we have the storage capacity for 50,500 gallons of water. That’s really quite enormous (!). (Of course, we need Mother Nature’s continuing help in the form of snow and rain!)

We lost some horses (as we do every year), and we had some foals (as we do every year), and the herd and the range are in excellent and very good condition overall. In September, we celebrated our 11th anniversary since the last roundup. Fertility-control treatments continue apace, and because of the efficacy of the native PZP that we use, and the aforementioned good condition of horses and range, there’s (thankfully) nothing (no removals) on the horizon.

Without further ado, as 2022 comes to an end, let’s remember some scenes of Spring Creek Basin and its fabulous mustangs to carry us ahead into 2023 (some have been previously published here; others are new to the blog):

Tenaz (showing off his rarely-seen generous star with wind whipping aside his forelock) and the mustangs rang in the first day of 2022 with fresh snow! A handsome bay mustang does look rich and supremely healthy in new snow. I know I write that a lot with regard to bay mustangs, but really, have you ever seen a better color combination!? OK, OK … all of the other equine colors look pretty fabulous, too. 🙂

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Even baby horses like Lluvia love to catch fluttering snowflakes on their lips! They do make me laugh, these ponies (see yesterday’s post about laughing with friends!). 🙂 With their thick, insulating coats, mustangs are well adapted to winters in high desert areas such as Spring Creek Basin. Our winters are fairly mild, though we do have some frigid days … and snow!

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Dundee, Rowan and Aiyanna came from Sand Wash Basin in September 2021 and were welcomed here with monsoon-grown grasses. They filled out nicely that fall, but by March, they were a bit on the lean side. I think that had to do with their youth: Dundee was 2, and Rowan and Aiyanna were yearlings – all three still growing. They all blossomed throughout this year, as you’ve seen from recent pix of the girls. On this particular evening, they were high on a ridge on the west side of Filly Peak when another band appeared below, sending them into a gallop that I was thrilled to “capture” in that glorious golden light!

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We may not have gotten much snow last winter and not much rain in the spring, but because of the previous summer’s monsoon rains – which, after a period of tense waiting, filled all the ponds – we came through winter and into spring with full ponds, which meant fantastic water in April. One of the greatest joys of watching mustangs is seeing them splash and play in water in nearly-belly-deep ponds – and then drink long, thirst-quenching draughts. Again, these ponies do make me laugh!

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Corazon works his classic mustang-silhouette-at-sunset pose. He has really come into his own as a steady band stallion these last few years, and his son and daughter adore him. His son, in particular, is a mini-me who inherited both his black-and-white coat and his flank heart. Though Corazon’s namesake heart isn’t visible in this image, I think it’s one that does cause one’s heart to soar, just to see a mustang free in the wild, the glowing horizons fading into infinity.

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You’d never know it to look at them, but these sprightly creatures are sisters! Their mama was lovely Tesora, whom we sadly lost in February. She lives on in their spirit and beauty. Lluvia sticks close to big sister TaylorK, whom she knows more as an auntie. Family is – always – everything. (As they run, do you see the soaring bird in the pattern on Lluvia’s shoulder? She has another on her right shoulder.)

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With green all around him as the summer days advanced through July, Sundance made clear to another stallion, who was a bit closer than Sundance thought was appropriate, that his proximity was NOT appropriate. He does look rather intimidating, doesn’t he? Sundance is one of the most laid-back stallions out there (and really, they’re all fairly easy going, most of the time), and he’s also very protective – just like all of them. All it usually takes is a bit of posturing, sometimes some sniffing and nudging and squealing, and points are made! Successful conversation … without a word spoken.

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Speaking of proximity issues … ! These two boys are former longtime BFFs, with the sorrel previously the lieutenant of the grey. But then those roles reversed, and sorrel Braveheart wasn’t so generous as to allow Pitch to be HIS lieutenant. The more things change … eh?! Our bands are generally very stable, but the horses are wild, after all, and young stallions do grow up and seek families of their own – as do the fillies.

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Stepdaddy Braveheart is quite proud of and protective of his family of Winona and Reuben. (Remember that amazing grass this fall after the monsoon rains?!) This was a beautiful, warm evening when a few bands had gathered together (but not *too* close together), and I moseyed along with them as they grazed and moved from the northwest valley toward Spring Creek canyon. When the little threesome paused in the most photogenic spot possible, with iconic McKenna Peak and Temple Butte in the background, I couldn’t press the shutter fast or long enough! This is the photo I gave Connie Clementson upon her retirement as manager of Tres Rios Field Office in Dolores.

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In October, BLM wildland firefighters along with some Forest Service (San Juan National Forest) partners from around the region (including a crew from Monticello, Utah (Manti-La Sal National Forest)), conducted a prescribed burn to help maintain wildlife habitat on the ridge south of Spring Creek Basin that forms part of the southern reach of Disappointment Valley. Because of the moisture we had earlier in the summer, the three-day burn moved slowly and was well monitored by at least 30 firefighters. I don’t know what the total acreage was, but it wasn’t a huge area, and it mainly consisted of burning piles of old, fallen pinon and juniper trees so grasses can grow. To clarify, the burn was NOT in the basin. But the slowly drifting smoke – which was visible from the basin but didn’t blow over the basin – made for some dramatic scenes. As I remember, it rained a couple of days after the end of the burning, and our sky returned to its usual clear turquoise.

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Napping with pals is just about the best, most peaceful way to spend a lovely fall day in November. There were two bands and a group of young bachelors in fairly close proximity to each other when I hiked out to visit with them all, and it was such a soft, quiet, gentle evening among friends. The horses draw such comfort from each other … and I gain such amazing comfort from them. On these days, especially, I wish such peace was something that could be bottled and shot into space to rain down on people and places less fortunate than us.

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In early December, we were still pretty dry in the basin, but we had this little cherub to brighten the days. 🙂 She’s a classic example of grey foals being born a color (sorrel, bay, black, etc. – my family even has a grey Quarter Horse mare that was born palomino) and *greying out* – though our grey foals don’t often grey out as fast as this little girl. Mama Echo was born black. I think I’ve mentioned before that grey is the dominant color among the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin. In that way, too, these two are classics. 🙂

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As in years past, how about a bonus pic?

Winona and her son Reuben and one of the many amazing views from Spring Creek Basin, looking out across far lower Disappointment Valley to Utah’s La Sal Mountains, snowclad once again from fall onward. If that scene doesn’t scream (ever so quietly, of course) *peace*, I’m not sure what could. Their band and a couple of others had gathered at a pond, and they were walking away. I was trying to anticipate horses walking *across* that view, but mostly, they were lined straight out away from me as they left the water to return to their evening grazing. When I saw Winona – with confident baby Reuben leading the way – I was somewhat disappointed that they were so far away. … Then I realized that, to capture *that* view, my long lens needed the space of distance. Truly, sometimes it really *does* all come together!

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Thank you all for reading about and enjoying our Spring Creek Basin mustangs this year. Many special thanks to those of you who faithfully come up with comments every day (sometimes, it must be nearly as hard as it is to come up with blog-post titles)!

Here’s to a coming year with plenty of moisture (!), and full ponds and catchments, and forage that grows ’em up strong and healthy. To take to heart a lesson from the mustangs and other wildlife: Be present in the moment! Some times (sometimes? many times?), that’s ever so much better than looking back or worrying about what’s ahead. 🙂

Happy New Year’s Eve!

Comments : 20 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Brumley Point, Colorado, Disappointment Valley, Education, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, Mustangs, Partnership, Rain, Snow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon, Temple Butte, Tres Rios Field Office, Water, Water catchment, Work projects

Water catchment 2 – phase 2, day 5

26 11 2022

As previously announced, our newest water-catchment project is finished! Now we just need snow (which, according to the forecast, is coming Monday night/Tuesday). And to continue the theme of gratitude this Thanksgiving weekend, we couldn’t be more grateful!

Last Thursday (exactly a week before Thanksgiving), this was about all that remained to finish the roof: Garth Nelson and Daniel Chavez had a few more purlins to weld to the I-beams, and Mike Jensen and I had a few more propanel roof sheets to screw down to the purlins.

One reason I love to highlight these work projects our BLM guys do in Spring Creek Basin is, of course, to highlight the work they do for our mustangs. Another, related, big reason, is to highlight our partnership in doing so. … And because these three guys – Mike, Garth and Daniel – work as well or better together than any three people I know. It’s pretty amazing to be around their creativity and can-do attitudes. So my photographer’s heart was really stoked when a particular purlin required Garth (right) and Daniel to literally put their heads together to get it welded to the I-beam.

Again, you really can’t beat our “office” scenery.

The unmasking. 🙂

All three guys working together. 🙂 After we finished the roof, it was time to put the gutter up along the front of the structure!

When the gutter was in place all along the front of the structure and secured, we switched up our pairings: Mike and Garth got to work on measuring and cutting and gluing the pipes from holes drilled in the bottom of the gutter to each of the tanks, and Daniel and I worked to put more spacers and long screws through the gutter to the front beam (Daniel handled the measuring and drilling; I did the handing of spacers and screws … and photo documentation :)). I didn’t take a pic of those “spacers,” but they were about 6-inch long pieces of small-diameter metal tubing, through which the screws ran, the function of which was to keep the sides of the gutter from collapsing when the screws were run through the gutter.

Gotta make sure all the pieces fit together tightly!

I didn’t get Mike’s face in this one with Garth and Daniel because he was holding the part of the fitting inside the gutter while Garth tightens it at the underside of the gutter, but I still like this shot of all the guys working together. Mike and Garth were working from the northwest to the southeast side of the gutter and tanks, and after we got the gutter up with a minimum number of spacers and screws, Daniel and I were working back from southeast to northwest – this is where we met “in the middle.”

Measuring the pipes before gluing.

Great work in the foreground. Great scenery in the background. 🙂

Moving toward conclusion.

The gutter comes in pieces that overlap, so Mike and Garth caulked each seam as well as under the fittings for the pipes inside the gutter.

And they also used a spray-on sealant along the outer seams of the gutter pieces and to coat the outer parts of the pipes. That will help protect the PVC pipe as well as give it a little more help in absorbing the sun’s warming rays during the winter.

The green things seen in front of each tank are two pieces: One is a ring that goes around the top, exposed part of the culverts that protect the below-ground valves for each tank, and the other (see it leaning against the farthest tank?) is the lid to keep critters (like snakes) out of the holes.

One final piece to show you readers (in two pix):

Garth welded his name onto the top of one of the I-beams, and …

… Daniel welded “2022,” “TJ,” “MLJ” and “D. Chavez” into the southeast-end beam of the structure. 🙂 Last year, he welded “BLM 2021” into one of the end-facing pipes.

When we finished the new water catchment, before we left Spring Creek Basin, we went over to last year’s new catchment and welded that little walk-through gate to the pipe (see the post about the previous day of work). Until then, it was secured with wires and didn’t swing. Now, access is as easy as unchaining the gate and swinging it open. Panels like those pictured eventually will enclose the newest structure to keep the horses from rubbing on the tanks or messing with the culvert caps.

Best of all, this pic of Garth, Mike and Daniel shows some hard-working BLM guys who put a lot of thought and effort into ensuring that our mustangs have good water (quantity and quality) in Spring Creek Basin! With the addition of these two new water catchments in the last two years, our ability to store water that is clean (not salty or silty) and not subject to evaporation increases from 24,000 gallons (two 12,000-gallon tanks for each of the other two catchments) to 50,500 gallons!

This Thanksgiving weekend, especially, we are SO thankful. 🙂 Thanks to our amazing BLM partners for all they do for our mustangs!

Comments : 15 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Education, McKenna Peak, Partnership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Temple Butte, Tres Rios Field Office, Water catchment, Work projects

Water catchment 2 – phase 2, day 4

21 11 2022

It’s finished!

In terms of pix and storytelling, that’s jumping the gun a bit, but I am so excited and proud of this project (as I am of all the projects we do in Spring Creek Basin for our mustangs), that it seemed appropriate to start with the best part of the news.

What follows – in this post and one more future post – are pix of the last two days of work that take this water-catchment project from nearly done to ready to catch snow and rain!

Early last week, Garth Nelson and Daniel Chavez sneaked out to the basin with the purlins needed to weld onto the I-beams and got started welding them into place. Wednesday – the day featured in these images – Mike Jensen and I joined them to start putting the propanel (metal) roof sheets into place and screwing them into place atop the purlins. Above, Mike puts the first screws in place to hold the first sheet down!

Garth and Mike align the front edges of the roof sheets – which will just overhang the gutter – and screw them into place while Daniel watches.

As the first roof sheets were laid down, Daniel and Garth returned to their partnership of setting the purlins in place and welding them to the I-beams.

Mike and I got the roof sheets up and screwed down pretty quickly and then would wait while Garth and Daniel methodically welded each purlin in place.

Mike had the yellow drill, and I had the red. … I was pretty fond of that little tool over the two days. 🙂 Note how the purlins face in different directions. Garth and Daniel did that on purpose. Because the purlins had some “bend” to them, they reasoned that alternating the directions of the purlins would increase stability. Mike and I, walking about and drilling on that roof, can attest to the stability!

The purlins met atop the I-beams, to which Daniel and Garth welded them.

As Daniel welded, Garth held his end of the purlin in place, and vice versa, as you can see a couple of pix above.

As always, the guys used their portable welder on the back of the truck. The propanel roof sheets were on the flatbed trailer, and Mike and I would lift a few of those to the roof at a time, then climb back up on the roof (using their second truck as our “ladder”) and screw them down.

Closing in on the end of the roof!

I was happy to grab photos while Mike and I waited for Garth and Daniel to weld their purlins.

And we found ways to fill our time and stay busy. That little walk-through gate will eventually allow us to access the “interior” of the water catchment – under the roof – to do any maintenance or attend to valves at the tanks, etc. The panel “fencing” will go up later. How do you attach hinges to round steel pipe?

The welders weld the hinges to the pipe, of course!

And so the ends wouldn’t stick out to catch an unwary mustang, Mike sawed them off. 🙂 Always thinking about the horses, these guys!

This view is from up the hill, “behind” the water catchment, looking down the hill. You can juuuuust see the trough at far right behind Daniel.

And about here is where Wednesday’s work ended.

Our weather has been sunny and cold (teens) in the early mornings, followed by highs in the 40s or so – warm enough when you’re working! And among the benefits, remember: No gnats! 😉

As Paul Harvey used to say – at the end of the story – “the rest of the story” will be coming soon!

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Categories : Advocacy, Education, McKenna Peak, Partnership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Temple Butte, Tres Rios Field Office, Water catchment, Work projects

Water catchment 2 – phase 2, day 3

16 11 2022

We may not have snow, but the temps are telling us that winter is nigh! Garth Nelson and Daniel Chavez were in the basin this week, working in the cold wind to get the first batch of purlins in place and welded to the I-beams. They said they saw more vehicles in the basin the last two days than in the last year. … Have I mentioned that third rifle season here is like Grand Central Station? … Fortunately, not for much longer; it’s over half an hour after sunset Friday.

Every little bit brings the project closer to completion!

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Categories : Advocacy, Education, McKenna Peak, Partnership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Temple Butte, Water catchment, Work projects

Water catchment – phase 2, day 2 (more)

14 11 2022

As promised a few days ago, here are some more pix of the work on the newest water catchment in Spring Creek Basin. 🙂

You won’t ever catch our BLM guys sitting down on the job! As I mentioned in the last post about the project, the guys started by setting up the laser level to mark the heights of the steel pipes that will hold the I-beams, which will support the purlins, which will be topped by the roof, which will catch the rain and snow to fill the tanks to water the mustangs! So here, Garth Nelson is setting the laser in a place where it will be high enough to shoot over the tops of the tanks so the pipes can all be marked. Not sitting down so much as getting the eyeball view!

While Garth set up the laser level, Daniel Chavez held the little doohickey that caught the laser at the right height at all the pipes and marked the appropriate levels.

Measure many times and many ways before the final cut, goes the saying? Garth and Mike Jensen also ran string lines to ensure the levels.

Most of the pipes required a fair bit to be cut off, but this one needed just a little sliver. … It also was the pipe that started to alert the guys that something was amiss with the blade(s) on their nifty little saw – and this pic of Daniel using it gives a little better glimpse of that tool.

For those of you interested in such things, here’s another angle of one of the guys’ favorite tools. The “blade” is a band that goes around those black wheels on the underside of the tool. Usually, it saws through heavy “stem pipe” almost like a hot knife through butter (a bit slower, but steel is, after all, steel!), but the first couple-few blades they tried – brand new out of the package – were just dulling the teeth on the blades within minutes. NOT working. That’s what led to the double-tool whammy of using the grinder tool as well as this tool – and then finding the blade that worked, which worked for all the rest of the pipes.

Using the tractor to carry the heavy I-beams to set atop the pipes.

While Daniel got started welding the first I-beam to the pipes in the middle of the catchment structure, Garth finished cutting the pipes to height/length.